Voyeur punished for watching men wee

A voyeur already listed on the Sex offenders Register has been given a community order for watching men urinating in The Oracle toilets.

Derek Martin, 39, had come to Reading from his home in East London to meet a business client, but when the client was running late, Martin decided to visit the men’s toilets to pick up a partner, Reading Magistrates’ Court heard.

The defendant would lock himself into a cubicle for a short while, before returning to the urinal, standing next to men and watching them urinate.

Last month he admitted behaving in a lewd and disgusting manner outraging public decency by watching males urinate on Saturday, June 14, this year, and faced sentencing on Thursday last week.

At his sentencing, Ravinder Chodha, prosecuting, said Martin had been seen by a cleaner at The Oracle loitering around the men’s toilets, and after two-and-a-half hours the cleaner reported him to security guards.

She said: “He was seen to enter the toilets on a number of occasions and was acting in a manner that concerned the cleaner. Some men noticed the defendant watching them in the urinal and had a look of anger on their faces, and even when there was a free urinal away from the other men, he would use the one directly next to them.”

Martin Jackson, defending, said: “Mr Martin did not come to Reading specifically to look at men using the urinals, he had come to meet a business contact and found himself with some spare time.

“He went to the toilets looking for potential partners but he has stopped using this method as a way to pick up partners now.”

Martin, of Fairfield Road in East London, was jailed for two months in 2005 for voyeurism and was ordered to sign the Sex offenders Register for seven years. For his offence of outraging public decency, Nick West, chair of the bench, ordered him to serve a 12-month supervision order, to complete 100 hours community service and pay £60 costs.